invacar LightBulbFun's Invacar & general ramble thread, index on page 1, survivors lists on Pages 24/134 & AdgeCutler's Invacar Mk12 Restoration from Page 186 onwards, still harping on...

[lesapandre]

Princess drivers seat for sale in Finchley if your current one is sagging and ever needs swapping out whilst rebuilt.

https://ebay.us/m/m8ixHw

[AdgeCutler]

Not nearly the progress I hoped for this weekend but isn’t that always the case?

A good few hours of cleaning the crankcase halves have been spent and one sides cam followers installed.

[LightBulbFun]

13 hours ago, AdgeCutler said:

Brian the 12e had his first proper outing of the year yesterday, a nice little car meet in the Churchyard, Alveston. He received lots of interest in the Sunshine while I enjoyed a Bacon roll and a mooch. Driving home suddenly got interesting when the wind started to blow a hooley, requiring lots of twitchy steering corrections and a freak storm cloud burst its load of hail and sleet. It only lasted a couple of minutes but as the windscreen hit freezing point it was misting up (no demister on a mk12!) rapidly and the wiper piling up sleet either side of its stroke (porthole of peril @dollywobbler!?) left me with very limited visibility on a fast and winding road used by HGVs. I suppose all the excitement just added to the adventure and I enjoyed the outing, the little Invacar performed to its full capabilities.

Great to See Brian out and about once more! yeah even in the Model 70, I have that problem sometimes that the bit of the windscreen you look through for the wing mirrors, especially the offside one, is the one corner of the windscreen that the wiper does not reach

7 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Princess drivers seat for sale in Finchley if your current one is sagging and ever needs swapping out whilst rebuilt.

https://ebay.us/m/m8ixHw

Thanks for the heads up, but @SiC gave the interior a complete overhaul/spruce up including replacing all the seats with better items  (speaking of that related work, I looked at @SiC's pictures from the heater control work, and I dont think the cables ever had a Z in them just L shaped ends that hooked in the hole, so looks like all thats happened is its popped back out the hole and needs popping back in, I did try and have a quick fiddle with it to get it back in the hole but it was not playing ball, need to revisit it with some needle nose pliers or such like so I can position it better)

 

 

speaking of the Princess, yesterday while REV was getting a wash, I visited the local waste disposal site to get rid of REV's old engine oil and the filter, I of course, had to have a shifty through the fluorescent tube/lightbulb  recycling bin, where I found this whole compete Twin 8W T5 bulkhead in there, in remarkably good condition so of course it made its way home with me  

its a bit of a rare beast too, an original Atlas Escort(?) predating the much more commonly known Thorn Escort bulkhead 

listed in 1966 as a current range product

but replaced by 1969 by the more familiar angular design of  Thorn Escort (tho as seen originally sold under Thorn's Atlas brand too)

very pleased to have been able to find/save it! these early Atlas ones are quite rare and in general I have wanted a Twin 8W Bulkhead of this general style like this for some time but I have never been able to secure one, so pleased to finally have one, and in pretty good condition too, only a slight crack to the diffuser and overall in good shape, interestingly does not look to have had many hours on it, but the tubes fitted are both very recent production so seemingly was serviced not all that long ago before being removed

 

(ultimate holy-grail would be a Quad 8W Coughtrie SFB32, if anyone has one of those lemme know LOL)

[LightBulbFun]

On 28/03/2026 at 23:18, danthecapriman said:

Petrol is there for burning my friend! It’s your moral duty and obligation to burn as much of it as possible thus ultimately improving the climate🤣

Im not sure how it’d fare tbh around your way. Urban driving is definitely not what it’s really designed for though so it certainly wouldn’t be very good! It’d be a pain for parking too with the size of it. 
Now probably isn’t the best time to try either with petrol prices going up.

it was more that, both when I was looking at @wuvvum's Volvo when he had that briefly up for sale, and the Crown Victoria Limousine I tried so hard to get, a few people said to me "but what about the fuel economy!" and I am looking back at this and seeing the 22Mpg, that the VDP is getting, and wondering would a big inline 6 or Big V8 be any worse? I have heard they get about 15-25Mpg themselves! hence my question, would it actually be any worse LOL

 

i imagine the Mercury has Power steering?, and probably much better visibility then most moderns, so I dont see parking it being a problem, most modern blobs are massive anyhow! so I doubt the Mercury would be any worse LOL

[danthecapriman]

6 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

it was more that, both when I was looking at @wuvvum's Volvo when he had that briefly up for sale, and the Crown Victoria Limousine I tried so hard to get, a few people said to me "but what about the fuel economy!" and I am looking back at this and seeing the 22Mpg, that the VDP is getting, and wondering would a big inline 6 or Big V8 be any worse? I have heard they get about 15-25Mpg themselves! hence my question, would it actually be any worse LOL

 

i imagine the Mercury has Power steering?, and probably much better visibility then most moderns, so I dont see parking it being a problem, most modern blobs are massive anyhow! so I doubt the Mercury would be any worse LOL

Mercury has pretty much everything including PAS! 
The length of it is the problem. It’s like a long wheel base Sprinter van in size. Fine in less busy places but where space is more a premium it’s possibly going to limit your options a bit. 
When I drove a Sprinter daily in Portsmouth city that could be a pain in the arse at times.

It’s the 7.0 litre big block V8 in mine so you wouldn’t buy it if you cared about fuel economy.
BUT: you wouldn’t realistically be using it daily to just run around town. It’s a car you’d have for fun and to go out longer distances in, which is where it excels really. Sit on an A road or motorway at 55/60 and it’ll be pretty good on gas. Pottering around town or booting it everywhere and it will drink much more.  
You’ve also got the advantage of REV, so for local pottering about or running errands etc you can use that and get a better mpg in the process. Use the big yank or whatever you want for a bit of fun. 
Theres plenty of big American cars around tough that are still big but aren’t the full sized land yachts. Something like a Ford LTD/Crown Vic (first gen) is a big meaty lump still, with a V8, but it’s not as big and oversized as something like my Mercury. Even the smaller sedans like the Ford Fairmont are still pretty big and many are V8’s, and they still really stand out too.

Like everything, if you want something big and different and can afford it then I’d say go for it. Life’s too short for living like a peasant and economising with everything. Sometimes it’s good to enjoy yourself! Just maybe be a bit more careful how much you do use it?
 

[captain_70s]

41 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I imagine the Mercury has Power steering?, and probably much better visibility then most moderns, so I dont see parking it being a problem, most modern blobs are massive anyhow! so I doubt the Mercury would be any worse LOL

Don't underestimate a full-size Yank, while they are roughly as wide as a modern SUV they are significantly longer... Here is a new XC90 vs a mid 70s Buick...

The XC90 is about the same length as my Volvo 740, which is already longer than the standard 4.8m UK parking space!

[danthecapriman]

Don’t underestimate the overhang either. Manoeuvring them around tight city streets you might need a bit of extra turning room. 
This probably sounds dumb and obvious, but left hand drive is something you need to be comfortable with, especially in something that big. Obviously your sat on the wrong side and you need to judge where the centre of the road is against the car otherwise you can very easily be driving along partly on the wrong side or right on the centre. Overtaking is more difficult too as your on the wrong side, so visibility past whatever your overtaking is worse. Even simple things like passing a bus in a bus stop, you need to hang back a bit so you can still see past the obstruction without having to pull into potential oncoming traffic.

Dont let it put you off, it’s just one of those things that you get comfortable with after doing it for a while. It becomes second nature pretty quickly like driving normal cars.

Someone down in Portsmouth city was using a 1985 Ford Crown Vic, pretty regularly at one bit. I used to see it driving around or parked up in various places around town. There was an older Buick around too that could be seen pretty often. 
The Ford used to live down one of those Victorian terraces streets near one of my colleagues house. They used to park it in the street same as any other car. So it can be done and there are people doing it.  
 @eddyramrod used to run his Cadillac around like a normal car too.
 

[Zelandeth]

I reckon if you want the squishy Yank waft mobile but space is an issue something like an 80s Buick Riviera, Olds Delta 88 or similar would be ideal.  They're normal car sized but damned near as comfy and just as easy to waft around covering intergalactic mileages in.

[LightBulbFun]

oh I want a Squishy Yank goes without saying, why do you think I tried so hard to get that Crown vic limo a while back  but my question was more simply one about fuel economy, that it would be quite interesting to see what results would you get if you drove something like @danthecapriman's Land barge around Central London like I do the VDP/REV  if the VDP gets 22 to the gallon, would the Yank Tank really be much worse, even @Yoss's Routemaster gets like 9Mpg (not sure if that is with or without passengers/if it makes a difference!)

[danthecapriman]

17 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

oh I want a Squishy Yank goes without saying, why do you think I tried so hard to get that Crown vic limo a while back  but my question was more simply one about fuel economy, that it would be quite interesting to see what results would you get if you drove something like @danthecapriman's Land barge around Central London like I do the VDP/REV  if the VDP gets 22 to the gallon, would the Yank Tank really be much worse, even @Yoss's Routemaster gets like 9Mpg (not sure if that is with or without passengers/if it makes a difference!)

How do you drive your VDP @LightBulbFun ? 
Driving style has a bit to do with it, obviously. It’s much more open and remote here so I tend to get the foot down a bit although I definitely don’t drive it hard. She’s an old lady now with a drinking problem😆 presumably you can’t do quite the same around where you live? Traffic isn’t bad here either so I don’t really tend to do much slow creeping along or sitting idling.

I don’t know if maybe looking into LPG conversion is worthwhile now? I seem to remember with that fitting it to carb cars was pretty straightforward. I think you lose a bit of mpg while on gas but gain because it’s cheaper to buy? Might be worth a thought. 
There are of course diesel yank tanks around which can have certain advantages although they are few and far between now. And a bit, erm, shit! (Though I’d have one!)     
It’s a difficult one for me to give you a figure really for mpg, as I just don’t give a damn! I’ve never really bothered working it out and keeping track. It’s a fun car so I use it for fun and it costs whatever it costs. I’d expect even my Volvo and Capri would be a bit crap on fuel in urban driving, but again, I’ve never bothered really working it out, particularly on the rare occasions I’m driving around anywhere urban.

A quick (questionably reliable) google search seems to reckon 8 - 10 mpg city driving on a 73 car…
What I can tell you though is that there’s nothing else that comes close for comfort with these cars. They do literally float along. Seats and suspension are excellent for it, back in the US they were built to cover long distances in comfort so over here they have absolutely no trouble. Steering is so light you can turn it with one finger! Although that does make it feel a bit vague. They aren’t slow either! Earlier 70’s and older cars are generally better as there’s no smog junk etc etc sapping power but they have bags of torque and will get up and shift very easily. 
There’s absolutely nothing to them mechanically either. All very basic and reliable stuff. It’s just big and heavy! 
Id heavily advise anyone though to spend a bit of time prepping cars like this for use here. Most didn’t get much if any rust protection so that is an absolute must imho. Chassis tend to last well but the bodywork can start to suffer if you don’t. Even newer ones I’d do it.

 

Are there any yank tanks around in London now? There must be people still running them. I know years back you used to see them reasonably often.